A rubber mallet is surprisingly useful in flattening seams or hems on thick fabric or leather and especially on heavy flat-fell seams.

Continue around the pockets, trimming away the thicker layers and flat-fell seams.

Sew your seams the usual way, finish the raw edges with the serger or zigzag, press to one side, switch to top-stitching thread in the needle, and top-stitch the seams on the outside to resemble flat-felled seams.

noun

Origin

The verb fell meaning ‘to cut down’ is recorded from Old English, and is related to fall. Fell as a noun meaning ‘hill’ is a different word, not found until the Middle Ages. It comes from the Old Norse word for a hill, fjall. Fell as an adjective meaning ‘wicked’ comes from an Old French word meaning ‘wicked’ or ‘a wicked person’, the same root as felon (Middle English) and felony (Middle English). Today it is probably most familiar in the phrase at one fell swoop. This originally referred to the sudden descent of a bird of prey in deadly pursuit of its quarry, but came to be used to mean ‘at a single blow’ or ‘all at one go’. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, when Macduff hears that his wife and children have been killed at Macbeth's orders, he cries out, ‘What! All my pretty chickens and their dam / At one fell swoop?’ See also blind

Origin

The verb fell meaning ‘to cut down’ is recorded from Old English, and is related to fall. Fell as a noun meaning ‘hill’ is a different word, not found until the Middle Ages. It comes from the Old Norse word for a hill, fjall. Fell as an adjective meaning ‘wicked’ comes from an Old French word meaning ‘wicked’ or ‘a wicked person’, the same root as felon (Middle English) and felony (Middle English). Today it is probably most familiar in the phrase at one fell swoop. This originally referred to the sudden descent of a bird of prey in deadly pursuit of its quarry, but came to be used to mean ‘at a single blow’ or ‘all at one go’. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, when Macduff hears that his wife and children have been killed at Macbeth's orders, he cries out, ‘What! All my pretty chickens and their dam / At one fell swoop?’ See also blind

Origin

The verb fell meaning ‘to cut down’ is recorded from Old English, and is related to fall. Fell as a noun meaning ‘hill’ is a different word, not found until the Middle Ages. It comes from the Old Norse word for a hill, fjall. Fell as an adjective meaning ‘wicked’ comes from an Old French word meaning ‘wicked’ or ‘a wicked person’, the same root as felon (Middle English) and felony (Middle English). Today it is probably most familiar in the phrase at one fell swoop. This originally referred to the sudden descent of a bird of prey in deadly pursuit of its quarry, but came to be used to mean ‘at a single blow’ or ‘all at one go’. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, when Macduff hears that his wife and children have been killed at Macbeth's orders, he cries out, ‘What! All my pretty chickens and their dam / At one fell swoop?’ See also blind

Origin

The verb fell meaning ‘to cut down’ is recorded from Old English, and is related to fall. Fell as a noun meaning ‘hill’ is a different word, not found until the Middle Ages. It comes from the Old Norse word for a hill, fjall. Fell as an adjective meaning ‘wicked’ comes from an Old French word meaning ‘wicked’ or ‘a wicked person’, the same root as felon (Middle English) and felony (Middle English). Today it is probably most familiar in the phrase at one fell swoop. This originally referred to the sudden descent of a bird of prey in deadly pursuit of its quarry, but came to be used to mean ‘at a single blow’ or ‘all at one go’. In Shakespeare's Macbeth, when Macduff hears that his wife and children have been killed at Macbeth's orders, he cries out, ‘What! All my pretty chickens and their dam / At one fell swoop?’ See also blind